GNOME 43.beta released

Hello,

GNOME 43.beta is now available. It also marks the start of the UI, feature and API freezes (collectively known as The Freeze). String announcement is also in effect now, in advance of the String freeze which starts 27 August. If you’d like to target the GNOME 43 platform, this is the best time to start testing your apps or extensions.

You can use the 43beta branch of the flatpak runtimes, which is now available on Flathub beta.

This release moves WebKitGTK to build against libsoup3, which is now the recommended version to use.

An installer image is also available for testing and porting extensions.

https://os.gnome.org/download/43.beta/gnome_os_installer_43.beta.iso

This is meant to be installed in a virtual machine with EFI support (such as the GNOME Boxes version available on Flathub). You can also try to install it on bare metal but be warned that hardware support is very limited.

If you want to compile GNOME 43.beta yourself, you can use the official BuildStream project snapshot:

https://download.gnome.org/teams/releng/43.beta/gnome-43.beta.tar.xz

The list of updated modules and changes is available here:

https://download.gnome.org/core/43/43.beta/NEWS

The source packages are available here:

https://download.gnome.org/core/43/43.beta/sources/

WARNING!

This is beta quality software. This release is intended for GNOME
developers and beta testers. For more information about GNOME 43,
including the full schedule, please see our wiki page:

https://wiki.gnome.org/FortyThree

Cheers,

Abderrahim Kitouni
GNOME Release Team

4 Likes

Nice!

  • I’d love if the welcome tour app would come in focus right away after doing the initial setup wizard, rather than it appearing after the Overview mode is activated. Only after closing the tour app (either via choosing “No Thanks” - btw, why is “Thanks” capitalized, this isn’t proper English - or after finishing the tour) I’d like to see the Overview mode activated; right now closing the tour app just presents a blue-ish desktop with only the header bar seemingly usable.

  • after doing the initial setup, the welcome tour app is not clickable at all except on its two buttons. I’d expect any part of it is clickable, and clicking anywhere except its buttons would bring the window into focus and exit the Overview mode.

  • from a “privacy by design” perspective, I’d love to see the location services disabled by default in the initial setup wizard. And also the camera and microphone settings in the initial setup wizard, defaulting to off.

  • even when disabling the location services, at the next step in the initial wizard, the timezone setting, it looks like the geographical location of the computer has already been established, which doesn’t bode well for me, considering I’ve had just turned off location services in the previous step.

  • I’d love to be able to set the dark theme straight from the initial wizard, first or second step, to not burn my eyes throughout the entire process.

  • It would be nice if the beta ISO came with the default desktop wallpaper for 43 already applied.

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